Valentina Matviyenko

She added that, if the United States of America wanted to, they would bring Kyiv to the negotiating table in 24 hours.

Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are possible only under Russian conditions, but Moscow will not convince Kyiv. This was stated by the chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko.

 The death toll from floods caused by heavy rains in the western German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia rose to 45, media reported.

He warned on the very bad development and called on Western partners and the so-called Kosovo to "come to their senses" in order to avoid catastrophic consequences of such a move.

Russia's top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, starts his first visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday, visiting Sarajevo and East Sarajevo and Banja Luka, in Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska.

"We want to continue work on strengthening this tradition in all possible ways for the benefit of present and future generations of our countries," the Serbian and Russian foreign ministers said in a joint article published by Politika in Serbia, and by Rossiyskaya Gazeta in Russia.

MOSCOW - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in Moscow Wednesday he had received Russian President Vladimir Putin's confirmation that Russia was ready to join the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue in case of attempts to expand its format and get the US involved.

MOSCOW - The sincere support of Russian top state officials is the most significant for Serbia, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said Wednesday after a meeting with Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Monday left for a several-day visit to the Russian Federation during which he will also meet with President Vladimir Putin, with whom he will attend the signing of several bilateral agreements.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic says Belgrade expects Russia to act as a mediator to resolve the Kosovo issue. Beta reported this on Wednesday, citing TASS.

During his meeting in Moscow with Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko, Vucic, said that Kosovo was a topic of his meeting yesterday with President Vladimir Putin.